A temporary change in the tax code is creating a sweet opportunity. Through 2012, the amount you can give in tax-free gifts jumps from $1 million to $5 million. In this video, Kevin Sanderford, principal of Colorado West Investments, explains how you can take advantage of this "two-year window."
Except for child custody matters, dealing with the division of assets is always the main area of stress during divorce proceedings. But you can take concrete steps that will take at least some of the pain out of the process, as Part Two of our series explains.
If a compromise by definition is a deal that pleases no one, then the tax deal that cleared Congress Thursday was a rousing success: Conservatives and liberals both dislike it, but those who voted for it agreed that the alternative -- letting taxes rise for everyone -- would have been worse.
The $858 billion compromise tax bill passed the House Thursday at midnight, and is on its way to President Obama's desk. With its passage, and the GDP growth it will propel, his reelection is more in the bag than ever. What effect it will have on jobs for the rest of America, though, is far less clear.
With a tax bill tilted to benefit the wealthiest Americans poised to pass Congress this week, U.S. income inequality is poised to set new records. One key to that shift -- a change in the tax rules that lets the rich pass their wealth on to their heirs at the lowest tax rates in decades.
DailyFinance writer Jonathan Berr sees much to like in the compromise President Obama reached with congressional Republicans on taxes and unemployment compensation. And while he'd never call it perfect, as he notes, the American voters elect politicians to get stuff done, which this plan does.
President Barack Obama has cut a deal with Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years and unemployment benefits for 13 months. But the plan is already drawing fire from Obama's own liberal supporters.
Casey Johnson, found dead Jan. 4 at age 30, and Ruth Lilly, who died Dec. 31 at age 94, were both heirs to huge family fortunes -- and both died right around the moment when a U.S. tax loophole took effect, with the potential to cost billions in revenue and to drive estate-planning lawyers crazy.
